Part 2 Summary

A chorus of Greek maidens appears, speaking with one voice as they pray to Artemis for an answer to the question of why they have been brought to Tauris. Iphigenia appears and offers a poetic, formal lamentation for the deaths of her brother and her family. The Chorus responds with equally poetic comments on how the tragic, murderous ways of the past haunt the present. Iphigenia cries out that she has been destined to live a life of misery, referring to her childhood, to being torn from her homeland and her fiancy, and was brought against her will to a land of savages. She concludes by saying the miseries of her current existence are drowned by her grief at the loss of her brother.

The Chorus announces the arrival of a Herdsman, who runs on and tells Iphigenia to prepare for ritual sacrifices. He brings news of...